Elle naquit , elle est née which, where?

[cooperlola]

In Sweet's example

Fighting Martians is making me hungry.  What's there to eat?"

"Fighting" is being used as a noun - it is the thing which is making him hungry - and it is thus a gerund.  However, if he had said "I've been fighting Martians, and it's made me hungry" then fighting is being used as a verb (a 'doing' word as my old teacher would have said) in the way you describe, JR.

 

[mint]

Good explanation, Coops.

JR, here are a few more examples so that you get the idea that these words ending in "ing" are words that name something (nouns) rather than verbs which, as Coops says, are "doing" words.

Chopping down trees is hard work (notice also that the verb "is" agrees with the noun "chopping"

Living in France was a very good decision for me

Travelling by train is simplicity itself

Flying aeroplanes requires a lot of skill

I'm sure you now understand this concept of using a verb ending in "ing" as a noun and you will now probably never forget it.  So, join the old foggies club where they use words like "gerunds" which have now definitely fallen into disuse and are only revived on forums like this one!

[Helen]

(we've moved a long way from the passe simple)

Fighting Martians makes me hungry. How do you say it in French.

My skills just aren't up to it. (why is this double spacing?)

My atttempts:

To fight with martians makes me hungry

Combattre contre les Martians (me fais avoir faim???? thats not right)

Whilst fighting Martians I became hungry

En combattant les Martians j'ai eu faim. (buts that I was hungry not made me hungry)

I give up!

 

[Clair]

Combattre les Martiens me donne faim.

[mint]

Les Martiens cannot possibly make head or tail of this and will think us earthlings completely off our rocker.

I have now come to the conclusion that grammar, like humour, is culture specific and is not understandable to babies or Martians.

Incidentally, I often wonder what a Martian would think if s/he observes our behaviour at traffic lights.  Must think us utterly daft to stop just because the light is red and then go off just because it's green.  I mean it can't have any meaning for Martians (or indeed for some humans)

I myself don't do passe simple.  Might one day but...........not yet!

[Chancer]

My French girlfriend who is very understanding, corrects my French often but not continously and rarely laughs at my mistakes; does not speak English.

We were chatting yesterday and she laughed at a word I used, as it is not her character she explained that I had been using a word of my own invention (there are many) for a long time, she had not corrected me as she understood the meaning, she was laughing as she had found herself using this non existant word in an important governmental meeting!

I have been saying "retrovision" for "hindsight" for 3 years and am now really conscious that there are probably many more in my vocabulary, interestingly she couldn't think of the proper French equivalent (retrospectivement) although I was probably not able to describe "hindsight" very well in French.

Am I the only person to invent words like this, should I submit them to the Academie Francaise?

[Tourangelle]

Just to come back to an earlier part of the discussion, it is called the past simple because there is only one word, unlike the passé composé.